Expertises

The exploitation of the production control

Posted on by Ahmed ESSADKI

The strategies of industrialization followed by advanced nations were based on the resources potential that their own countries can offer. For example, France is known to be an agricultural country, and food, by its climate, water resources and because agriculture can be practiced on half of the land area. Also, Germany has found an industrial vocation because the basement was full of coal. It is not possible to believe that during forty years of occupation of Morocco, France did not have time to understand the important potential of agri-food for morocco. Why then, on the eve of his departure (in appearance) from Morocco, France pushed for the emergence of a local pharmaceutical industry instead of a food industry that would have made more sense? This article reflects on why France did those choices that still have an impact on today’s Morocco.

The health elitist sector in Morocco

Among those who have known the period just after independence some may remember that francophone Moroccan elite consisted largely of physicians and pharmacists who have very quickly worked to enact  of ad hoc regulations to protect their separate areas yet interdependent. The pharmaceutical unit, as a starting point, sells to the pharmacist who, in turn, needs private or public physicians to sell his pharmaceutical products. It is likely that the reason behind the promotion of the occupier for these training, more than for the food ones, there is the fact that the productive sector of the medication depends almost entirely on outside support, is-to say mainland France in those days and, consequently, it was easier to manage from afar. Indeed, apart from alcohol and sugar, all other raw materials must be imported, preferably via mainland France, as well as equipment and material for work and, occasionally, foreign executives and technicians that were highly paid. These relations were shaped by agreements between the French decision makers and local businesses. As a result, the multitude of French intermediaries had every one a mission to do, and the sharing of substantial profits throughout the process of making the drug. As if all of this could be insufficient, the Moroccan industrials had to carry out their work activity in an almost exclusive reference to the French pharmacopoeia only. In addition, French partners have required most often that they control the products at their level before distributing them in the market. The pharmaceutical sector was therefore closed off in front of other competitors and the French makers skimmed the finances of companies concerned at wish   without consideration for the financial burden they posed to the average Moroccan. While I worked in the mid-eighties as “Attaché scientific et administratif” in a pharmaceutical unit of Casablanca, I was informed of the visit of a French expert that I was to receive and give him a tour of the control structures of the company; what I did. The pharmacist in question, moreover very nice, was retired long ago and was not giving the impression of great interest in laboratory control techniques (what supposedly was his official mission) of the time what made the exchange between us very limited. But some time after, following an indiscretion of a manager of financial transfers of the company, I learned that the “expert” had returned to France with a tidy sum in foreign currency, the equivalent to three millions dirhams. It is not clear if the sum was for the expert alone or to give to someone else after deducting a commission.

France, once it has chosen the health sector profiles, has shaped his “contribution” to this sector in the control and expertise has, in fact, made itself master of the purse strings of the Moroccan health sector by all possible means. After several decades of these practices, the prices excessively high of the drugs could no longer be hidden to the Moroccan people. Everyone knows of the outcome, namely the difficulties of Ministry of Health to make accept by the manufacturing drug companies that their prices were abusively very high.

What about the food industry

The first edition of SAM (Salon Alimentaire du Maroc) was in 1996 and we booked   a stand in the name of “Cabinet d’expertises Dr Essadki”. At the opening, the conference room was packed with hundreds of people sitting besides those who were standing. After the officials SAM, there were presentations of selected speakers by the organizer. The speech of French guests was greeted with good applauses of the audience. But there were also Americans whose intervention has been referred to the end of the conference day. Furthermore, as if that were not enough, the organizer has set up right on the time slot of the US professional’s speech, in the space just adjacent to the conference room, a generous cocktail to the public. Needless to say, everyone has deserted the hearing. We were only four participants to listen to five Americans, including a woman doing their presentation to a room so empty. But there is no doubt in my mind, someone deliberately premeditated and planned cunningly diverting the hearing before their presentations. As a Moroccan, I was uncomfortable especially considering the effort of those guests to speak French, thing for which I congratulated the lady whose presentation was perfect. Months later, when I had to do, for the court, an inspection of the company COVEM, company of the president at the time of the two federations, FICOPAM (Fédération des Industries de la Conserve des Produits Agricoles du Maroc)  and FENAGRI  (Fédération Nationale de l’Agroalimentaire) and promoter of SAM Salon, I was received by a French citizen who introduced me to his “boss”, accompanied me for a tour of the unit, gave me all the explanations, responded to my letters, and acknowledged  that he was the man in charge for everything in the company and was, beyond that, the president’s adviser. He greeted me a few months later, on the eve of his return to France, giving me that kind of cryptic message “its mission to Morocco was now over.” His boss disappeared from list of officials of both federations mentioned shortly after him.

Unlike the manufacturing of medicines, where the dependence of Morocco for foreign raw materials, and the French Know-how in particular, could put in doubt the advisability of this type of projects for the country; launching an industrialization of agri-food sector should have appeared much more rational and logical. But France had to have reasons, not difficult to find their nature, for not pushing in this direction. In fact, in Maintaining Morocco under the “status of gardener”, penniless as he was at that time, this was actually a godsend for the French agro-industrial. I myself bought in Switzerland in the seventies homegrown fruits and vegetables that were labeled “Origin / France”. With perishable fresh produce, Morocco was, and still continues in some respects, driven to sell his goods quickly, see possibly the sell off to avoid further losses. If we look more closely, although the strategy implemented by France in the case of drug manufacturing was not the same as for agricultural products, both approaches converge in the sense of maximizing profits on both domestic sectors for French operators. But if the bonds of understanding with local pharmaceutical producers were well worked and well oiled, the situation does not appear to have been as optimal with the agri-food operators. From there, probably, acute fear of France to see someone else more powerful put his nose into the business of agriculture in Morocco. The treatment meted to the US delegation in the SAM 1996 must be put on the back of a morbid fear of mainland France to be outdone by the Americans in the national food industry.

The 28-07 Act in all of that

I remember the case of an importer of jam packed (one serving in aluminum) that ran the risk of being put in jail for «non-compliance proven” of his product to the regulations. For such items, which cannot be sterilized in an autoclave, there is the practice of adding a bacteriostatic; sodium benzoate in this case which was not recognized as a food additive under the old law repealed in 2010. To get out of trouble the importer, I had to compare with the regulation of pharmaceutical production where the same sodium benzoate is used in virtually the same dose in making syrup for children. It should be emphasized that the laws regulating the manufacture of jam go back to 1928, i.e. very old and since that time no one has touched it. In this respect, Article 43 of the Enforcement Decree of the current law 28-07 of food safety, recommends to professional organizations in the food industry  the writing  their own guides of Good Hygiene Practices and Manufacturing by referring, among other things, to relevant codes of practice of the Codex Alimentarius. As a consultant for more than twenty five years, and to this day, I did not see yet the realization of any of these manuals referred to by a professional body. Indeed, these kinds of books are not written like we do for a “people magazine”. The ONSSA has a role to play in this regard. The regulator should roll up his sleeves; write one or several of such manuals that organizations in question can take as model for writing their own. After all, this is part of the work of the ONSSA hitherto, to my opinion, largely imperfect. Without it, the gap between the principles of the 28-07 Act and the daily practices of operators may become larger over time. This is also the price to be paid by the regulator to show everyone that the era of the exploitation of control and expertise on our productive sectors is definitely over.

Expertises/Non classé

Dispute on a health certificate ONSSA

Posted on by Ahmed ESSADKI

We learn all our life

 After opening the ISBB (Institut Supérieur de Biologie et de Biochimie) 1 in 1992, we held an open house for a few days annually. During one of these sessions, I remember the question of a pharmacist in charge of a medical laboratory in Casablanca, which was that instead of the two years of the course, we should train technicians on at least three years. When I asked whether he had himself technicians in his lab, his answer was “yes” and on how they have been trained, he replied “on the job”. This means that they indeed analyzed blood of sick people without preliminary knowledge how that kind of practices should be carried out. But if the trainee learns from his mistakes, it is appropriate to consider that it is the patients who paid the price in this case for they probably received distorted medical analysis results. In this regard, it is common in the case of PhD students, after they complete their degrees, that they follow a postdoctoral training within an appropriate structure where they learn how to solve real questions of their future career. On a general level, learning on a scale or other, has a cost and that price is the lowest in a suitable structure whatever work we need to learn. Regarding the food industry, Morocco has recently adopted, for the first time in its post-protectorate history, the 28-07 Act on the safety of food products similar to those prevalent in developed countries. It remains to be seen whether operators are those who are going to suffer from traineeship of officials ONSSA on this new regulation. The article addresses this topic by relying on imports of gelatin.

 Gelatin, ubiquitous in processed foods

 For the food industry, gelatin substance virtually tasteless and odorless, is an essential adjunct, as an additive or ingredient for the production of countless food products ranging from drinks and juices, the confectionery and pastry canning of animal and vegetable origin, milk products such as yogurt, margarine and others. It is used for its properties of thickener, stabilizer and many others. In Europe, three-quarters of the gelatin for food is derived from by-products (bones and hides) of slaughtering pigs. But it is also made from byproducts of other animals such as beef, poultry and fish; as it may also be of plant origin. After the emergence of mad cow disease, specific regulations (European, American and others) govern the production of gelatin for human consumption in food but also through pharmaceutical products and cosmetic ones. This to avoid contamination by agents of disease spread above-mentioned. For us other Muslim countries, the gelatin must come from a Halal animal, slaughtered according to Muslim ritual and the final product also processed conforming to Halal standards. These requirements are specified in the 28-07 Act of food safety and the provisions adopted for its implementation. In this respect, ONSSA has recently circulated a copy of a veterinary health certificate with the idea, a priori, to facilitate trade of this substance on the domestic market. But the result seems not to be the one the ONSSA was expecting. Indeed, there are currently many batches of this substance that are stopped at the port of Casablanca without letting the operators know when the lockout will be lifted.

 Blockage in the form

 The model certificate issued in May last by ONSSA to embassies in Rabat for approbation by the relevant services of their countries of origin, and then the operators to include the document in the gelatin exporting file for Moroccan market, is based on a paper of the European Union (see here and here). The available information shows that several countries, providers of gelatin, turned a deaf ear to the request of the supervisory authority of our food industry. Topping the list, there is France that proposes, instead of Moroccan certificate, her own model, which is also similar to European document, that this country considers more appropriate to the needs of ONSSA. This blog has a copy of model ONSSA and the one proposed by France. If the similarity between the two documents and the model of the EU is not in doubt, the certificate of Morocco requires, in addition, that the animal of origin be Halal and be slaughtered according to Muslim ritual (in an authorized abattoir) and the gelatin be produced by a protocol in accordance with Halal Moroccan standard for kind of process or an equivalent standard. The importer of the goods must therefore produce appropriate documentation from a religious authority showing conformity of the gelatin with these requirements, including certification for Halal slaughter.

 Implications of the blockage

 As supervisory authority on the national agribusiness, the ONSSA has an obligation to enforce the Moroccan regulations on the domestic market including the prohibition of access for foreign non-conforming products. There is nothing wrong per se in this process. On the other hand, if an operator, whose merchandise may be correct is blocked at customs, with storage costs that increases with every passing day, shall have to wait until diplomats of a foreign country decide on the fate of the ONSSA certificate, it’s probably gone for a long wait. Meanwhile, we sort of inflicting punishment for a problem (diplomatic decision mentioned) on which it has no control. The WTO (World Trade Organization) recommends that in such cases the competent authority, which stopped the product, has an obligation to show the operator the shortest way to reach an exit, that is to say the removal of the blockage. This solution is inconsistent, in my opinion, with the path through the above mentioned “diplomatic” route. In this respect, our new regulations deal, in the implementing decree of 2011 (see here), in Articles 47 and following, of criteria to be fulfilled for a food product to gain access to the Moroccan local market. If the operators concerned are able to demonstrate by any suitable means that their gelatin products conform to the requirements of 28-07 Act, there is no reason that the Moroccan border authorities have to impose improperly delays on these business professionals that put at risk the commercial activity of these importers. About it, the FDA, reference organization for what concerns the safety of food and drugs in the world, asks first of all of operators to comply with US rules if they intend selling goods that are under her jurisdiction on the American market. To this end, she enters names and addresses of companies and what they produce and by what methods. Then she says it clearly that cheating will see US market closing in front of fraudulent operators with, if necessary, prosecution and fines that erases everything that the cheater has won before. After that, it is up to the operators in general and importers in particular, if they want to trade on the US market to comply with the rules. This can apply at home.

 What about the release of blocked products

 In short, everything suggests that ONSSA officials are familiarizing themselves with a law of international stature. Now, it seems likely that the operators are the people who are going to pay the damage so the traineeship of officials ONSSA has to be accomplished. But given the wide use of gelatin in the food sector, the mentioned blockage does not seem to bode well for the continuation of the implementation of the new regulation by the operators concerned. In the past, I had to intervene, together with an American audit firm with whom I was collaborating, for finding solutions, for European and Moroccan operators that asked us for, for speeding up the transit of goods entering the US market and I know, contrary to a popular perception largely false, how the FDA looks to contributing proactively in finding rapid appropriate solutions. Now, finding solutions to technical problems of operators are not the mission of the FDA, and also not the one of the ONSSA, but agents of the federal authority can help them find suitable consulting firms that can do. It is highly time for officials ONSSA to stop competing with private players so that a genuine implementation of the 28-07 Act can start.

 1: The ISBB, which opened in 1992, has been very successful in terms of the rapid integration of technician graduates in the national productive fabric. But for the price paid by the candidates, the structure was not profitable and, instead, there is now the LEAA (Laboratoire Essadki d’Analyses Alimentaires).

Expertises

The milk cooperatives strive for more equity

Posted on by Ahmed ESSADKI

The symbolism of milk in Morocco

 In 1974, I accompanied a couple of Swiss-German friends who came for the first time in Morocco. We did a stop, on the occasion of this tour, for a few days with an aunt in a hamlet near Ouazzane. She knew we were coming and had time to milk a cow and handed a glass of the drink to each one they drank graciously. I so had to explain the symbolic significance of that gesture to our tradition. Indeed, the consumption of milk in Switzerland is very commonplace. It is a substitute for water for cooking, it is added to chocolate, coffee, tea is infused with and also they quench their thirst with milk that often is cheaper than commercial water. While at the time of Ramadan, during the long drought of the eighties, the good customers of grocer’s shop had to wrap the precious drink in paper to hide it from the view of many other unlucky consumers. But businessmen seek to invest in the products demanded by the market, what explains how now everyone can buy milk at will, freely and no reason to hiding the drink. But one may wonder what happens to small producers cooperatives in all this. That is the subject of this article.

 Manufacturers also cheat

 Between 1994 and 1999, I executed hundreds of judicial expertises at the request of courts of the Kingdom, particularly on industries of the food sector of Casablanca. Part of that work was devoted to expertises on flour (a powerful lobby and on which I shall have occasion to return later in another text) and milk, present article’s purpose. Summoned by registered mail to give me their view on fraud charges against one of the larger units of production of pasteurized and shelf stable milk; the production manager sends me a copy of list of the control of “work in process” of milk in a cardboard box which shows that the fat content was far less than the regulatory requirements. The same afternoon I was in the company in question with the box in hand. After a brief discussion with the director of human resources, we were joined by the production manager, a young engineer who had seen no harm to transmitting the mentioned list to a judicial expert. I was angry against these people because in my hands there was evidence that they put on sale batches of fresh pasteurized milk with fat content far below (up to 50% less) the regulatory requirement. I was put in the situation as they say in English: “Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t”. Fraud detected could be the starting point of a scandal of major proportions, particularly for women to whom the doctor may recommend cow’s milk after weaning their babies at six months. On the other hand, what assurances these people can give of their willingness to stop their fraud? Then, someone who attended the meeting a little heated took me aside and told me, in substance: “For these people, you weigh a lot less heavy than a traffic cop that can lead one of their trucks with cargo impounded for a broken taillight. You, you will submit your report to a magistrate to whom (the chances exist) they regularly deliver the full range of their dairy products and derivatives gracefully”. Upon reflection, I dictated to them a long note1 detailing how the quality control work was carried out within their unit2 hoping this will deter them to start again their fraudulent practices. I must say that the temptation must have been very strong for these people because the money earned in defiance of the law and on the back of the consumer in a year were undoubtedly significant at the national level, something that would be made impossible without the complacency of the Fraud Control Services. With the same reasoning, the latter have had to, from time to time, raise the stakes with their findings of irregularities for, supposedly, a more important piece of cake. But that was never to jeopardize a “good agreement” between both parties.

 The industrial’s coercion tactics

 I was asked recently to define an approach to upgrade cooperatives in the region of Casablanca that deliver raw milk to large processing units. As part of my preparation for this task, I gathered some information on milk circuit from small producer to cooperatives and to industry. I also read some reports of trainees on the subject. In milk, you may find microorganisms which signal an insufficient hygiene work. The failure can be fixed with educating of people to how to meet hygiene standards with help of some posters and reminders from time to time. The impact on the final consumer is negligible because sterilization schedules are there to destroy these pathogens. Milk may be diluted with water, which can be seen easily. This is a low-end fraud recurrent that normally a cooperative can find where it comes from and takes measures to stop and exclude, eventually, the recalcitrant member. Milk can stay more than enough at room temperature which also can be inferred, for example, from microbiological profile of the product. Methods more efficients exist to determine these parameters, and others, in times shorter and shorter. But when we talk with leaders of cooperatives, all they know is that they deliver a quantity of the product and then receive a sum of money that corresponds, they are told, to quality of their milk upon which the buyer is sole judge. Everything happens orally and nothing in writing. In fact, the collection of such information takes me to some past experiences. Thus, in research, the reviewer is wary whenever he finds before him a convoluted statistical formula because it can be an excuse to hide any failure. In this respect, while reviewing some reports of students mentioned above, I was struck by the number of parameters, sometimes esoteric, which these companies rely on to determine the milk price of a given cooperative. This scheme recalls the perception that one experiences precisely with the convoluted statistical formulas mentioned before. It was may be simpler, with regard of purchasing of cow’s milk whose parameters are well defined and standardized in official monographs, to inform suppliers,  i.e. cooperatives, on threshold criteria to qualify for a pre-determined price. At the same time, possibly agree on costs of analysis of parameters used to qualify milk for a defined quality grade. The merit of such an approach is as to reassure everyone and show that manufacturer’s work with cooperatives is transparent. But may be that transparency causes harm somewhere to profits which are more confident with opaque rules and the ladles procedures.

 What about the regulatory authority

 In the text above, we have omitted an important player who is the supervisory authority. Indeed, ONSSA (Office National de Sécurité Sanitaire des produits Alimentaires) does not seem any helpful for milk cooperatives that are struggling to survive. Indeed, it takes more effort than a name change from «Fraud Control Services» to “ONSSA” to make a distinction between the work of officials before and today. It is possible that among the current makers ONSSA, some still dream of sunny days spent under the (now deleted) old repressive 13-83 Act. But there are also other officials who want to do their work normally as required by the new regulations because they do not have another memory. The state would do well to consolidate the powers of these to help better guide efforts ONSSA the benefit of cooperatives. And there is even better. If I was manager of a cooperative, I would sought to enter in  association with others to form a network, reach a critical size and make our own industrial production of milk and dairy products by ourselves. After all, method of “freeze-drying” dates back to the thirties of the last century and the American soldiers were already receiving milk powder during the Second World War. With respect to pasteurization and / or sterilization techniques, they are more than centenarians; and all of these technologies are actually widely available via the Internet or implemented by hardware vendors. In this respect, Australia, which had no vine or olive on its territory, is now among the most active exporters of these commodities. With regard to export, all West Africa is waiting to enjoy on Moroccan performance.

 1: The text of this letter, addressed to me as an expert, signed by the plant manager and duly dated and sealed, is in my book: « Les Rouages de la Répression des Fraudes », édition 2005 (Sochepress). In this respect, I confirm that as expert witness, I always prohibited myself of receiving any gift and / or money or else if the work is asked for by the Court; except for the meager fees awarded by the tribunal that go along with some respect.

2: This is to say: How the Quality/Control work must be done from that moment.

Expertises

Pharmaceutical practices guiding the work on food

Posted on by Ahmed ESSADKI

Students in public schools in the wake of independence, like myself, know how the school programs that we were given reserved the lion’s share to metropolitan France. Except religion, we were served the French norms as models to everything, particularly for culture. I guess this was also the case for other Francophone countries, grouped mostly in Africa, which France had undertaken to civilize through an altruistic approach of which obviously nobody doubts. This image, idealizing the French people was supposed to guide us for the rest of our lives. But one day, watching a TV program that reported on French farmers preventing the landing of mutton on a Breton port, I was very surprised to hear my “landlady” treat French people as “ignorant” and “uneducated”. Regarding the recent history of mankind, the English believe they have spread civilization throughout the world where the British Empire ruled for several centuries on almost three-quarters of the Earth’s surface. This British epic gives the historical reason of the use of Anglo-Saxon standards, upon which the Americans built later on, by most countries in the world; first of all in pharmaceutical field and increasingly in the food industry which is the focus of this article.

The standards campaign

 As representative, some time ago, of a German broker in Casablanca, for the sale of antibiotics and other raw materials for the pharmaceutical industry, I was invited by Promopharm to have coffee with the then president; who was interested in a little more comfortable payment deadline. Whereupon, I received order to deliver three tons of acetylsalicylic acid (raw material for aspirin). Shortly after, the purchasing manager asked me to come urgently in the company and in her presence, the pharmacist in charge asked me to recall my merchandise because (she told me) the Ministry of Health (to whom the finished product was intended) found, based on the Bulletin of Analysis of supplier (BA), the material in question was not consistent for human consumption. I took the opportunity to ask for a glass of water I drank, after adding two tablets of aspirin from batch already manufactured, inviting them to see how I was going to suffer before dying! It should be emphasized that the mentioned BA specified conformity of raw material to British and US pharmacopeias and said nothing about the French one. On the latter (edition of the time), the monograph of aspirin is similar to that of Anglo-Saxon pharmacopoeias except that it contains a non-specific additional “pseudo-test” which, therefore, adds no information to intrinsic quality of the product. But formally, it could allow a Moroccan administrative officer, profane of these lures, to conclude that requirements of French pharmacopoeia vis-à-vis this product is more assertive. In reality, this is just one example of countless others that the  masters for a little while on Morocco have used to lock the domestic market exclusively to their profits in the hope that it lasts as long as possible, that is to say, forever.

 Exegesis

 With regard to international trade in pharmaceutical and food products, international standards originally defined by ISO (International Organization for Standardization) have overwhelmingly been inspired by the Anglo-Saxon practices which, in fact, reflect simply the predominant role of these standards in globalised trade. However, the application of these standards is still based on the will of states. So knowing how to do it, for example by deploying a wealth of ingenuity, where French people excel, to win the trust of some well placed Francophiles decision-makers, it is possible to persuade them for the preference of French standards on others. If, in addition, this preference is translated as a criterion for selecting materials, which is likely in the case of aspirin product mentioned above, then the work is complete and the Moroccan market (or another in sub-Saharan Africa, for example) has been duly locked  in front of potential competitors of French operators. Since France does not produce all the materials that circulate in the world that a country may need, this results in very funny situations sometimes. If you want to pass a material produced somewhere in the world with our customs services without a problem, it is best to make it transit through France for normative formalities. But now, it’s a bit like seeing a movie translated into French. You pay extra for the translator. If by chance you are also dependent on this approach in the sense of export, it is possible that you will never find out what competitive word means. But this will not to displease the translator whose investment fund is summed up in everything and for everything in the language he taught you when you were a kid.

 What about food

 In the US, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) requires, from the nineties of the past century already, any physician to notify the center of each case of food borne illness observed during a consultation. The integration of these data over several years has shown that, for medical treatment and care for victims of foodborne diseases, the financial input for the US federal government (i.e. taxpayers), was of several billions per year; payment that must be borne in principle by the manufacturer and / or supplier of food products in question. Instead of making them pay the bill, complicated thing to implement, the US authorities have required of food operators the implementation of HACCP (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point) for the prevention of hazards in foods while, in substance, such requirement was previously only applied for pharmaceuticals. The law, which came into force in January 1997, was to apply the same way to all those who sell processed foods in the US market, including, for example, exporters of Moroccan seafood products. I remember that in a few months all Moroccan professionals involved have made the huge effort needed to upgrade their work practices and continue to export to the market of Uncle Sam. Two thousand and two, the new law “Bioterrorism Act” has renewed the same scenario. Again, very disciplined, the national food exporters referred to, have quickly endorsed the new US regulations by providing the Federal Agency with all informations she asked them for. Most of these services were paid in foreign currency.

 What about the respect to 28-07 Act?

 The 28-07 Act of safety of food products and its application texts are fully in force since 2011 and, despite the grandiloquence of ONSSA (Office National de Sécurité Sanitaire des produits Alimentaires), only a few Moroccan professionals seem inclined to show some respect for the law. In many cases, the authorization of an operator under the new regulations is dependent on a little more hygiene, that is to say slightly more work without it actually causes more spending. So are we faced with two types of Moroccans, those who understand and apply and “I couldn’t-care-less persons”? The arguments abound on this aspect of things. But first, operators are they solely to blame in this resistance to law enforcement. I remember, in the case of a joint-venture with a US audit firm, the remark of a Moroccan operator who did not find meaning to our intervention as long as the professional was forced anyway to go through the EACCE (Etablissement Autonome de Coordination et Contrôle des Exportations) to be able to export to any market in the world. Asked about this, the vice president (my American supervisor) simply said: “We do a good job and the FDA knows. If these people want to go through the body you say or Paris, it is their business! “.

 I do not think, in conclusion, that we are so many “I couldn’t-care-less persons” in Morocco. National operators who are eager to upgrade themselves, and harmonize their practices with the US regulations, comply with FDA requirements because they are convinced that this is the only way, and one that returns the least expensive, for the trade with the US market. Operators know the difference between an authority that says what she thinks and another that does not believe in what she says. It is time that those officials ONSSA adhere to the category of people who think what they say, and behave as such, so to give the chance to the 28-07 Act be implemented.

Uncategorized

African challenge of Morocco

Posted on by Ahmed ESSADKI

Among the elements that characterized the period of the last war there was food rationing all over Europe. Switzerland, for example, had to sacrifice some of their cattle to recover enough farmland for the growing, particularly, of potato and cabbage to feed people. According to newspaper reports of the time, the Swiss health had been the best at that period of war with a ration of meat once a week. But rationing has left its mark and, after the war, each European country has opted for legislation recommending food self-sufficiency. To implement this principle, studies were undertaken to analyze the population increase compared to the growth in agricultural production. The observed results, showing a progression much faster for human population compared to food supply, and consequences deduced after that, have greatly altered the course of events internationally. This article aims to summarize those elements with a focus on Africa.

 The US quiet period in Africa

 The period known as the Cold War had its own benchmarks. You had Soviet Union and countries under its thumb and, on the other hand, the United States and allied countries. China still asleep and Africa put under surveillance and intentionally left in wilderness. The Soviet model is exactly the opposite of that promoted by American capitalism; the main priority of the USA was therefore to contain the spread of the communist bloc in the world. One of the conditions (unwritten or withheld) to rally Western Europe to this program was to “let them do whatever they wanted with Africa”. In this respect, if it was possible in those days to get products and American equipments in Africa in general and Morocco in particular, there was a need to systematically go through a European country as relay. With the chain of intermediaries to pay, American products were necessarily much more expensive. But this shortfall for American companies was the price to be paid by the USA to push the Europeans to join the “anti-Soviet priorities” decided by “Uncle Sam”. Moreover, Europeans took advantage from this period, under the discreet gaze of Americans, to strengthen their southern borders, integrating Spain in particular, to guard against African emigration which was going to happen anyway as the consequence of the state of “acute poverty” in which European colonial policy had decided to circumscribe the continent.

 The awakening of China and its implications

 Just after the war, it was possible for an American to pay himself a one-month trip to Europe, return to America to find that he saved up money from his monthly salary. American industry, which operated at full capacity, had developed huge appetites. In contrast, China, hardly woken up, was in need of everything. A market of hundreds of millions of consumers, quite enticing for American businessmen, they then did every effort possible to successfully link their government with China. This reconciliation which helped disassociate, a little bit, China from the Soviet Union, also accelerated the industrial development of the Chinese giant who was looking now to export its cheap manufactured goods. Africa, with its low-income, was an appropriate target. The rise of China on one side, the repeated battering of the American administration on the other, especially under Reagan, coupled with the aspiration of the satellite countries of the Soviet empire, who sought their freedom every day with more passion, helped in fracturing of Soviet bloc which finally yielded with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany. Relieved of the burden of fighting against the Soviet empire, the Americans were willing now to put their energy into their other planetary ambitions.

 America rediscovers Africa

 Everyone knows the prohibitive cost of the efforts that the Americans have implemented with the Marshall Plan to restore European countries after the Second World War, especially Germany, whose infrastructures were flattened by the war and poisoned with the bombs still not exploded. We are less aware of efforts that the USA has done to stabilize Asia and consolidate their business model starting from Japan and South Korea. In the latter country, Americans have invested, from the fifties to the late seventies of the last century, more money than what the African continent received like investments during the same period. Now the export strength of South Korea, which has to import two thirds of the food it consumes, is the only guarantee of its prosperity. As for geography, Morocco is much better off than Korea in term of food potential. But as the speech of His Majesty pointed out at the opening of this session of Parliament; since independence, we have never been in a better position than today to become an emerging country. Like other powers such as China, Americans are very interested in taking off from Africa so to strengthen their business in the continent. In addition, Uncle Sam has the experience to do things thoughtfully. Thus, having, with other countries in our own region, dubbed Morocco as a great example for the development of the African continent is a good omen for the success of the kingdom in this new role.

 Morocco as a locomotive for Africa

 Almost all the conditions are met to allow Morocco to play the rightful role of locomotive for Africa. In our opinion, it still lacks one essential element, namely the willingness to adopt English as the language for its trade internationally, a choice that contributed to make of some countries, very poor once, dragons now of the current global economy, such as South Korea. Regarding the food industry, the opportunity was given to me recently to discuss a  pre-printed document written in French (veterinary health certificate which I have a copy) that ONSSA (National Agency for Sanitary Safety of Food Products) officials  have sent to embassies in Rabat with the idea they approve the draft by  competent authorities of their respective countries. Clearly, exporting countries concerned are called upon in the future to support their animal products by the relevant document duly completed, signed and stamped by the relevant stakeholders in their countries. The drafting document breaks international standards, particularly when it recalls scientific and technical criteria to be met without citation of the reference from which they were taken. Incidentally, in the year two thousand, I was commissioned by an American Audit Office, with whom I worked to set up their subsidiary in Switzerland for Europe and MENA (Middle North Africa East). To this end, I was received in Lausanne by the Director General of the Department of Investment of the Canton de Vaud, responsible for North America that told me: “I know you did your studies here in Lausanne, but you are here as an envoy of an American company. So I ask you to give me your report in English. It will then be sent, via the police department for foreigners, to Bern to agree to allow that you work here as an expert”. To my question whether the Vaud police want to read a report in English, his immediate answer: “Yes. Do not worry about that”. So, in western Switzerland, policemen of French mother tongue, for whom food sector is not their cup of tea, accept the effort to read a document in English. In Morocco, ONSSA, supervisory authority over the food industry requires, contrary to international practice, countries that want to trade with us do so in French so to avoid for them to read English as an upgrading effort!

 In the same vein, and in conclusion, the story that goes back twenty years and has been reported to me by a reliable source. Appointed for a short time as head of the EACCE (Autonomous Establishment of Coordination and Control of Exports), a Moroccan setting, which was returning from a training course in the United States FDA, called a contact in the US Agency to indicate his desire to see the FDA soon sign a “MoU” (Memorandum of Understanding) with the Moroccan agency, what the American official responded: “Let’s start by establishing a line of dialogue, then we’ll see for the” MoU “.  Twenty years later, it appears that officials ONSSA are still not prepared for this line of dialogue.

Non classé

Professional operators reflect the quality of education

Posted on by Ahmed ESSADKI

Recently, the issue of improving of Morocco educational programs is again on the agenda. This question is actually recurrent since the protectorate and no satisfactory solution so far. To have stayed in         Switzerland, for university studies and the professional work after, I did notice, after my return to Morocco, some curious practices in the audit work quality, and similar operations, that this article proposes to share with the reader.

 English as reference

 In Switzerland, students were asked to learn, just after their native language (German, French or Italian, depending on the region), successively the other two national languages ​​before thinking about the         assimilation of another additional language. However, this rule did not resisted requirements of international order (hereinafter the global market) which made knowledge of English pre-eminent on compliance with national preferences. In the seventies already, the past century, the holding in Switzerland of intervarsity seminars in English was the norm. Then, Zurich was the first to formalize the priority of learning the English language before the other national languages, followed later by other cantons. Today, the teaching English just after the mother tongue is the trend over the entire European continent. In Brussels, for example, texts defining the rules within the European Union are often conceived and written in English and then translated into other languages, including French. Whereas a text always loses some of its soul in translation, and sometimes more, of course we would be better off in Morocco if we could read the texts of Brussels directly in English rather than French or, even worse off, translated from French into Arabic.

 The Anglo-Saxon system as a platform for international trade

 University studies may be, save exception, difficult to imagine today without the knowledge of English. Aware of this reality, Swiss universities provide, for decades, the teaching English for free to beginners who do not have the mastery of the language, pushing them to express themselves in English in presentations and / or interventions in seminars. In the definitely globalized market, beyond work, the studies are supposed to prepare the candidates to research and innovation that are the prerogative of the English language these days. It is not surprising that the Anglo-Saxon is the first in the charts of financially profitable technological innovations, all sectors combined. Having only English to learn, these people may very early spend the remaining time to learn other things that are marketable successfully. When you know that a language may request a long-term effort to be mastered, that’s a lot of time saved that can be invested elsewhere. In contrast, when Arabic is your native language, that you must learn French as second language for a long period of time, just to speak it with French folks, there is little energy left to learn the English language and the result is that: “not mastering” of English equals a stay among the least developed countries in the world for more time. The reasoning applies even more so for those of Morocco with the Berber as mother tongue to whom one must pay special tribute for their resilience.

 With regard to international trade, which cannot be circumvented, the countries have never been as dependent on each other as they are today. In this respect, each one buys something from another and, at the same time, must sell other thing to a third one. For all this, there are rules. For example, you cannot survive just by purchasing and you have to find things to sell with the best added value as possible so to bring the most money. We must at the same time respect the rules established in the global market. But these rules, which are here to stay for a long time to come, are of Anglo-Saxon obedience, unless one is blind or refusing to see the reality. It follows that, to understand the rules, and get maximum profit, we must master English. Otherwise, we would stay our lives dependent on intermediaries of all kinds and see our integration into the international market getting away for even longer. If Switzerland, modest country initially without resources on its soil, has won the bet of excellence, this is, in large part, thanks to the ingenuity of having been inspired by teaching Anglo-Saxon which provides much more flexibility than the French system. Students learn how to search for knowledge rather than having their heads overloaded with general information without relevance to the jobs demanded by the labor market. By the way, everyone agrees, including France, on the fact that the system of baccalaureate, that has been established two centuries ago, is obsolete and no longer meets the modern way to acquire knowledge. But no one dares to criticize the Baccalaureate because it has virtually been sanctified by the French education system and, in Africa, we are mere collateral damage.  Almost at the same age other systems produce engineers ready to work in industry units.

 Impact of education on audit activity in Morocco

 Our recent education system was made by France, which looked at first, and it is not an exception in this, how to serve its own interests and nothing else. Educate Moroccan yes, but to serve that purpose only. I once complained, while working in a Casablanca pharmaceutical unit in the eighties, to the president as I was having difficulties to find confirmed laboratory technicians, to which he replied, “You may feel happy to find one. There is not long, I had to go to Paris to find a secretary that we had to pay in foreign currency”. In this regard, some of the Moroccan students educated in France were with the idea of ​​serving the exclusive interests of France once returned home. Even if so, for this purpose, one would have to create on those students some degree of dependence upon “French-style services”. The result of this deliberate and tenacious effort, whose sole purpose was to keep, beyond education, the grip on the economic and trade sector of Morocco, was accompanied occasionally by sort of dumbing down. Thus, certain behaviors that are decried elsewhere are oddly glorified in our country. I could see bonuses being offered to technicians responsible for monitoring / quality to do their jobs faster. Now, if in an industrial unit, a production bonus is acceptable, a premium for Quick Control is usually prohibited. Because if an error of a production that go fast can be detected   through control services, mistake of the latter can be a disaster for consumers. Thus, among all pharmaceutical units existing at that time in the Kingdom,  only Hoechst-Polymedic had, to my knowledge, service to the rank of management of quality control and whose head was therefore the same grade as the production manager and could, if necessary, stand up to him. In the other units, mostly associated to “French big pharma”, product quality control was reduced to the level of a simple service related, according to the moods, with production department, purchase or otherwise and would have had harsh difficulties to block the selling of a pharmaceutical product once manufactured! In fact, this issue has she ever been on the agenda of the AMIP (Moroccan Production Drug Association), very clever who can say!

 It comes back to me, in conclusion, this picture where I was in 2001 in Nyon near Geneva, where I took my two kids for a routine visit to a doctor. My children were alone in the waiting room and they were very surprised to have never had such an experience (being just them two in a  waiting room of a doctor) before in Morocco. They were almost to blame me for the doctor chosen for them. For “more the number of patients waiting is high, sometimes tens, more the reputation perceived of the doctor is good ». I had to explain that the doctor must do a job and that the Swiss authorities, the Metropolitan France also consider that for this he must reserve a time average of fifteen to twenty minutes per patient to comply with the rules. Otherwise, his reputation will be made of negligence at work and patients would refuse to see this doctor again. Another idea so far blocked at the entrance to the Office of the National Order of Physicians of Morocco.

Expertises

Expertise in its judicial sense

Posted on by Ahmed ESSADKI

Foreword

 There several years ago, a judge, via the Court of Appeal of Casablanca, handed me a file related to a mechanical item for expertising (Sprocket for winch awnings) that I had re-addressed to the Court, for not being a specialist of work asked for. The Judge, in turn, had sent back the file insisting politely to have my opinion on the considered case of which the judicial investigation exceeded time of   twenty years   without reaching any conclusion. This article discusses, through the record just mentioned and others, some weaknesses that hinder the development of judicial expertises in Morocco and looks at ways to rectify certain shortcomings in the light of what is happening in other countries ahead of us in the field.

 When there is failure of a regulator

 In the mentioned case, two small craft businesses objected about the “ownership” of the “discovery” of a mechanical part (see above). Persons having commenced hostilities had died and, when I handled the case, the dispute at Court was extended through their children even though the tribunal wasn’t in a position for giving reason to one or the other opponents. Flipping the record of the case, and after talking separately with each interested in their workshops, I had doubts that the father of one, and the father of the other, both illiterates, could have had any qualification to invent the mechanical part they fought for before Court.  Nevertheless, each of the artisans had received in his time a “certificate of discovery” in good standing issued to both applicants, a few weeks apart, by the parent organization of today OMPIC (Office Marocain de la Propriété Industrielle et Commerciale), something I had have checked in the same archives of this organization. It is this anomaly that probably no one has reported previously to the court that resulted in the blocking of the above file for twenty two years! Both sides claimed, based on exactly the same official document (in two original copies, each bearing the name of a different beneficiary) though irregular, the same title to invention of a Sprocket that both of the opponents have simply copied from a drawing on an item imported from abroad!

 Dependence of judicial expertise on the general environment

 Conditions that made the judicial expertise faulty, and those very assessments, are very numerous and it would take more than a book to review them all. Some cases are more malicious than others often for various reasons. In the example mentioned above, experts appointed by judges before me had to give an opinion on the matter. It is likely that they considered taboo to touch the “reputation” of the parent body then (now since OMPIC) so preventing that Court obtains a solution in time. In another case, when the tribunal did investigate the case of wheat imported from India by the Benzaidia Group, which caused quite a stir back in 2000, the Supreme Court held that an expert from LPEE (Laboratoire Public d’Essais et d’Etudes), a time handling the case, was guilty of falsifying data in his expert work and was not himself sufficiently scientifically equipped to undertake such an expertise! With all this, the “expert” in question was not overly concerned and no hindrance has been made by the court against the continuation of its business. Examples archived in the courts of the Kingdom and, for some, duly documented by myself, that relate to judicial expertises that are deceptive, forged, insufficient and / or suffer from other vicissitudes abound. The reasons that could be the cause are numerous and varied so to go under one section of this blog. But the fees awarded by a court to the expert for his work may, to our judgment, be revealed as a potential source of great disturbance in this type of work. We are going to look at this element more carefully.

The price of expertise

 In the United States, where competition is everywhere including the field of judicial expertises, the price paid to the expert does not vary significantly depending on whether the work is requested by a court or by an individual. Practices are devoted that according to the price range, with a “floor price” and a “ceiling price” for a given expertise in a specific field, the Court usually pay for the “floor price” if the tribunal is asking for an expertise. Also, the rule allows the customer to choose an expert witness and work with him. This saves time for everyone and avoids misunderstandings that can be scary, especially for the expert. The opposing party may, if it does not agree with the findings of the first expertise, ask for a second assessment. The judge has discretion to require, if he wishes, the experts to come to the tribunal and present their arguments in public. To go back to our subject, there is the case, for example, of the expertise of the so-called “adulterated” beer which led the deputy Zahraoui in prison in the nineties of the past century. The Court of Appeal of Casablanca asked me to study the beer in question and say whether or not it contained alcohol and how much. The urgency on one side, and the lack of a Moroccan regulations on beer on the other, forced me to buy copy of the appropriate regulation (which applied in those days in the case of Bulgaria, the country of origin of beer) from Netherlands and, to begin work immediately, pending delivery of the book, additional charges to receive “on the spot” a copy of the book by fax. We had to examine hundreds of bottles (referring to the batch of about one million units supplied by Mr. Zahraoui) using, with respect to alcohol, two separate analyzing methods to achieve compelling results and allow justice to do its work in serenity. Regarding the dosage of alcohol, we were dependent on the distillation step, real puzzle, considering that foam beer quickly which requires very patient. In summary, the laboratory was obliged to mobilize all its technicians days and part of nights (this was during the month of Ramadan) on analysis of the beer to the exclusion of any other work operations. After a month, the bill was relatively heavy for us. After reducing the note to the minimum possible, she stood still at two hundred thousand dirhams and I have received (as full and final payment), after more than two years of waiting, a little over twenty thousand dirhams*.

 Comment and Conclusion

 Once an expert is sworn in here, a judge of the court may nominate him in an expertise in his skills. Usually, a sum of money, at the discretion of the judge, paid by the applicant, lodged at the Registry, is temporarily assigned to the expertise to be done. One time his report terminated, and after consent of the judge, the expert can withdraw the money. If the expert considers that the sum is inadequate, he can ask the judge for a higher fee. He therefore must justify its request with invoices that he had to pay to carry the expertise to its term. In summary, the expert must do the work, write a report to withdraw fees the Court granted him for the task and, if necessary make a new report to justify fees fairer to him. He should, and the judge with him, do double work. That said, the judge, often a layman with work of the expert, will probably have to revert to a third-party opinion before deciding on the “right price”, which can take weeks or months to see years. But in the end, it is the applicant required to pay the sum in question unless the judgment of the Court is not in his favor in which case, it happens that the defendant waives simply to make the payment in question without the tribunal being able to force him for it. Looked at more closely, our system of compensation of expertise acts seem particularly vague and far from relevant next to what is practiced in the USA for example. Of course there is the sacrosanct issue that expertise be accessible to all levels of individuals! But this problem is analogous to that of accessibility to a lawyer. Precisely, because there is no need to seek the opinion of the Court to choose a lawyer, it seems equally logical to allow a litigant to choose the expert to whom he wants to submit a file to expertise.

 * : The reference to the expertise of beer on the occasion of this article is to illustrate the discussion on the topic of judicial expertises in general without any other claim of any kind whatsoever.

Expertises

Is there a real difference between an upgrading and a certification

Posted on by Ahmed ESSADKI

Last week was opened in Casablanca exhibition of Halal products. One of the chapters covered by the event, which is on the program, was entitled: “upgrading / certification, two distinct missions”. This article tries to see if there are objective reasons for making these spots independent of each other, and if this was not the case, why on earth do we insist so much to separate operations which support each other because intertwined.

 Preamble

 At the end of the seventies of last century, when I was working as an assistant at the Institute of Experimental Pharmacology, Lausanne, I received a phone call from the cardiologist Professor Ben Omar, whom I had never met before, of the Faculty of Medicine, Rabat, interested then, in particular, to set up a laboratory for assaying hormones renin angiotensin system in the Avicenna Hospital (system on which I worked in those days). When looking up in the “current contents” of the time to get an idea on the work of Mr. Ben Omar, I stumbled on an “open letter”, in an edition of the Journal of Physiology (in French), of a CNRS researcher at his French colleagues. He reproached them to publish their articles in the Anglo-Saxon journals and lamented that the above-mentioned newspaper became essentially a platform for African scholars! Professor Ben Omar had just published in the journal precisely, with seven members of his team, a section of their research. I have learned two lessons from the reading of the letter in question: First that the French scientists are well aware that to be taken seriously, their articles must be published in Anglo-Saxons journals. Then, for reasons of prestige associated with the “Francophonie”, the French official attitude should continue to promote, especially in Africa, the global importance of Francophone scientific publications.

 Exegesis 

 Scientific journals serve, among others, to communicate the results of research between people of the same profession and beyond. If the same observations are made independent ways by different researchers, this lead to the validation of the results reported, which raises these findings to the status of recognized references. It is these results first appeared in scientific journals, which are then used as the basis for writing such ISO norms and other standards. Due to the fact that most scientific journals that count are originally published in English, it follows that standard based on it are too. However, standards, built on such a rigorous approach, remain a minority next to the immeasurable number of all kinds of protocols and working recommendations coming out of nowhere, which have the appearance of rigor and whose reasons for promotion are often purely commercial. Our view is that the distinction as part of enterprises upgrading, between what comes to coaching, under a different responsibility from that belonging to certification, aims in distorting good manufacturing practices for purely commercial purposes.

 Reminder of the certification process

 Certification for the food industry refers to the confirmation of characteristics, specified in a given reference, in the conduct of a job or defining a particular product. This approach implies that a recognized authority for its area of ​​intervention will, in one way or another, test the skills or performance of an entity or its products to confirm specifications to the reference in question. The certification authority has discretion in choosing the appropriate protocol allowing it to establish the ability of the entity considered to deserve the honor of the required certification. The responsibility of the certifier is full throughout the certification process from initiation to completion, namely the issue of the document expected. It’s that time of preparing an application for certification, which is usually intended by the term accompaniment.

 Certification or accompaniment: the Distinction

 In the past, I worked with a large American firm for audit and certification for several years. Like other similar Offices, these professionals ensure the support of the applicant company for the accompanying period until the achievement of the certification process and take responsibility for their actions on all segments that articulate this work. This is apparently not the case for some European certifiers, usually French, who work in the Moroccan agribusiness. In this regard, during the last exhibition for Halal products held in Casablanca, the morning of September 26 was just devoted to theme: “upgrading / certification, two distinct missions”. Actually, I’ve heard this kind of distinction several times during my visits to work with food processing operators across Morocco. The upgrading assistants, usually local professionals, are sometimes selected on purely administrative criteria, see esoteric, for the job accompanying on certain duration, set according to the same random fashion, after which an European certifier, as mentioned above, is called on to terminate the ongoing operation by signing the certifying document. Some will wonder: why this distinction between upgrading and certification operations? I personally see both. The first, easily verifiable, is that the remuneration, expressed as the sum received to the worked days, is quite ridiculous for what perceives the upgrading assistants compared to what is given to the European certifier. In terms of expertise in the Moroccan agri food business, this type of subterfuge, in our opinion, has been widely used in MEDA financial assistance programs, where the money was primarily used to pay the European experts while results of their interventions were far from pertinent. The second reason is more subtle. Indeed, the obsessive fear of an expert is of being accused as incompetent by handing on, for example, of a certificate of convenience. With this system where European experts named above have created a screen, namely their “dependence” on the opinion of local upgrading assistants that have been put out of their direct responsibility, where they can take refuge at leisure to justify any failure of their certifying processes, they actually can raise money galore and keep their reputation in all circumstances untouchable. So, as they say, “your cake and eat it too.”

Comment and Conclusion

 What is surprising in all this is the silence of ONSSA, the national organization of supervision over the food industry including work expertise. When there is an abnormality that affects the American food industry, for example, whose consequences could be felt negatively by the industrials, the FDA doesn’t hesitate in intervening to warn of the irregularity and correct the perception among operators. These irregularities are numerous in the Moroccan agri food business (see other articles in this blog) but ONSSA seems too lethargic to deal with it all. That said, we know from our activity related to national agri-food sector, the officials of ONSSA make visits once a month, at least, to the sites of national operators. Among the operators, there are those who keep the names of the officers received, their cell phone numbers and other confidential memos. Industrialists, who fear these officers rather than respecting them, confirm that these delegates ONSSA come to see them for quick visits of courtesy but they do lack time to tell them about the new regulations and other information related with their industrial concerns. We remain unsatisfied when we ask why these people come anyway. But officials ONSSA must know the reason why.

Uncategorized

The 28-07 Act between theory and practice

Posted on by Ahmed ESSADKI

Lately, many sources confirm the delegation by state bodies concerned, initially by simple decision of a service of the Ministry of Agriculture, of operations of the sampling of goods, to private entities which in turn give the samples to state laboratories for the analytical controls. This article aims to decipher what such a new initiative may be hiding as well as possible implications for regulatory and legal validity of Bulletins Analysis (BA) that result.

 Reminder about lab work logic

 A laboratory of food testing usually performs two types of analysis, the operations of physical chemistry and others in the field of microbiology. The analyses are conducted according to predetermined regulatory protocols. The results are usually handed to the Chief (physical chemistry or microbiology) who endorses them before handing them to the hierarchy to implement the BA itself to be signed by a responsible and qualified graduate. The sample (or more) analyzed was of course previously taken by a sampling technician in a place sometimes very far from the laboratory where it is tested. In this respect, while the analytical control takes place in a laboratory, a place provided and equipped for the job, sampling can occur in all sorts of places.Therefore, this must be carefully prepared so as not to affect the results of analysis and interpretation that follows in the BA. So, the mission of sampling is a very sensitive step in the global control and testing of samples and must be performed by someone relatively young and healthy, well qualified for this type of work. Usually, the sampler is an experienced technician who best knows the peculiarities of materials and / or products to be sampled to avoid distorting when running the sample or during storage and / or transport of the sample pending analysis.

 Analytical control operations under the repealed Act “13-83”

 The law 13-83, now repealed and replaced by the 28-07 Act, entrusted the authority of fighting against fraud to do the sampling of goods. Officials of these services were completely independent of the official laboratories, also from LOARC (Laboratoire Officiel d’Analyses et de Recherches Chimiques). Documents in our archives show that many of these officials were unaware of the specific work of the sampling of goods which certainly had, before 2000, unfavorable impact on the results of analysis of samples examined at the time. As expert witness, I had the opportunities, during second assessment operations required by Courts, to raise this issue with leaders of LOARC and other state laboratories.Their answer was always the same: “We are not responsible for samples that are given to us“. This meant two things: 1) that the results given by the LOARC could not be questioned and 2) if there were any doubt, it had to be settled with sampling officials who may have cheated and handed the official laboratory “bad sample” (Value of today, if there is a dispute, the owner of a commodity must settle the case with the responsible of sampling). Companies had tried to file a complaint in court against services Fraud without success.Indeed, on the BA of state laboratories, origin of their worry, little or nothing was said about the work of officials of the sampling operations.In short, by ruling out responsibility of operations of sampling from the work of analytical control, everything was done to keep hands free, of official’s laboratory on one side and officials Fraud on the other, on the total control of the flow of goods into and outside the Kingdom. At the same time, with that approach to work, it becomes virtually impossible to achieve any claim on the part of a disadvantaged operator.

 Control according to the 28-07 Act

 The 28-07 food safety Act and texts for its application currently designs, like the regulations of developed countries, the examination and analysis operations as “indivisible” including both sampling as laboratory analysis. Thus, with his signature at the bottom of BA, the head of the official laboratory of the state (or other), accepts responsibility for the entire procedure starting with  sampling operations, through the laboratory analysis and ending with edition signed BA on the sample as ” representative ” of the batch of goods. It should be understood that in the event of a dispute, the responsibility of the laboratory is full of all the operations described above.

 What about law enforcement 28-07

 Information intersected from several sources show that sampling operations these days, on goods for import and / or export from Casablanca that are analyzed afterwards by one or other of state laboratories, are outsourced to private companies, following a “sovereign” decision by a department of the Ministry of Agriculture. Now, some leaders of these companies did their career under the banner of the defunct repressive law “13-83” before retiring. This blog has no information on how such a privilege and such a charge have been transferred from public to private, and under what circumstances. Pending more evidence on what appears to be a transaction, it is possible to draw two meanings: 1) According to our point of view, state officials behind this initiative make things difficult for Morocco in being transparent with operations of expertises and analysis and offering equal treatment to concerns of foreign companies interested in investing in Morocco. Then 2) in entrusting the sampling operations to independent companies from the laboratory responsible of the subsequent analysis , the responsible who took this decision discredit national regulation, as they consider sampling operations, that may impact laboratory results, not of their own responsibility but rather of another independent company ! It is true that in the event of a dispute over the results of a BA, with this system of arbitrary separation of the operation of sampling from remaining steps of analysis and control,a disadvantaged industrial would not be able to get any result whatsoever of any complaint. Because it will take a long time (businessmen usually don’t have so much), money and patience to eventually pinpoint a manager of any negligence. This is probably the intent of those behind this illegitimate manipulation of the law. This was the situation under the old law “13-83” that made most foreign companies interested to invest in Morocco flee at the time.

 There is not, in conclusion, to be alarmed more than that. Nevertheless, there eighteen years ago, the LOARC, by his fault, helped put a person to prison for a year of his life because the laboratory failed to distinguish between a beer with alcohol and another without. The same laboratory, just recently, was unable to differentiate, despite his “prestigious accreditation”, a puree from a fruit juice concentrate, weakening therefore the position of Moroccan industrials vis-à-vis their foreign competitors (and this list of documented large errors can be extended if needed). So if, with those people who have been empowered to take samples (under very questionable circumstances), there are leaders retired as those mentioned above, that will manage from now on  the upstream flow of goods into and out of the Kingdom, the director General of the ONSSA should actually worry in the future. Maybe even more so, in our opinion, for the products that these people can help pass into Morocco than for the goods repressed at the border.

Expertises

Misleading advertising on food products

Posted on by Ahmed ESSADKI

In the nineties, the Court of Appeal of Casablanca had asked my expert opinion in a case where services Fraud were accusing one multinational company of selling soap with olive oil that didn’t contain such an element. Olive oil was indeed in the bath soap but at such low levels that they went unnoticed for the usual techniques of laboratory control. In any case, this contradicts the subliminal message conveyed by the image of an olive branch occupying the largest area of the main face of the packaging of the soap supposedly seeking to show that the oil was added generously. In the United States, where the law regulates the labeling drastically, the attitude of society would probably have been considered a transgression to the law. But here, false advertising is far from being an immediate concern in the eyes of the regulations. Perhaps that is the reason why it is not uncommon to find commercial ads judged deceptive in other countries are accepted by national TVs for broadcasting in prime time with no objection from anybody. This article discusses some aspects of false advertising and sees if there are ways to improve the situation.

 Advertising and the Law

 The essence of the law on food safety is the same worldwide: the supplier has the obligation to bring to market safe foods. But the assessment of food safety depends on a lot of criteria correctly identified for some of them and less known for others. For example, in the fifties, the advertising on cigarette (not a food) has linked its consumption with better sports performance! Who could believe such nonsense today? Similarly, some soft drinks world famous claimed quench thirst. Today, many regulations recognize that these drinks are designed to rather heighten the thirst. The advertising on these products has not ceased, but the slogans used have been themselves redesigned for better sneak through the meshes of the law. Because ultimately the consumer that the law seeks to protect from abuse is the same man that advertising industrials are interested in appealing to him with messages very elaborate. When regulation devotes hundred US $ to protect the client, the industry affects ten thousand US $ instead to convince the customer to buy the same. The fight is definitely uneven.

 Sophistication of the advertising message

 Since the fall of communism, the new countries that opt ​​for a liberal economy continues to grow and this multiplication is naturally accompanied by the development of new industrial areas, including processing food units, looking to emerge and sustain their business in the global market. One way or another, all these people use advertising as a means to attract more consumers to their products. At one point, the competition becomes fierce and the wording of the advertisement addressed to the consumer to harpoon becomes a limiting factor that must be studied in a much targeted way. In this jungle where slogans abound, but where we are not more informed than before, consumers have become ill of their food. Now, the recurring features of a patient are suspicion in all directions except before his attending physician. It is possible that food manufacturers were made ​​aware of this fact. So, in order to force the hand of customers to buy their products no matter what, they have come to use advertising that was only reserved for drugs. Advertising a yogurt which suggests that regular consumption may regulate disturbed intestinal transit is to pour into chapter of those wordings that flirt with the fluctuation zone between what is food and what is drug. Of course, the average consumer, usually profane to science questions, which receives the advertisement, especially after a heavy meal in the evening of a day of Ramadan, and understands that he can rectify his “gastrointestinal disease” in being seated at home and simply by eating a yogurt, is likely to bite greedily on the harpoon of advertising.

 Comment

 It is generally accepted that if a drug gets to cure more than 85% of patients with a peculiar disease, the therapeutic virtues, source of healing, are recognized by the regulatory authorities to that particular drug if, on the other hand, the adverse effects are also well specified and notified. But the manufacturing of a drug requires considerable investment in research and often requires a lot of patience in the long process that sometimes leads to the discovery of the miracle molecule that will bring big profits to the pharmaceutical company. Once this path has been completed successfully, the substances may be prescribed by the attending physician and what the patient, who wants to heal, has to do is just to comply with physician recommendations on the medications he must take. In the end, the pharmaceutical industrial lucky that sees the sale of its products be done simply and in sustained manner can obviously excite lust of colleagues of agribusinesses. The question is that the two protagonists do not have the same risks. Moreover, the processing of fresh produce to make a commercially stable food of it is lot more accessible than going through path for the discovery of a new drug. The question remains that consumers are sick of their diet. Basically, there is a proliferation of Junk Food, suspected to be the cause of many illnesses related to diabetes, obesity and other cardiovascular diseases. To reduce the incidence of food borne illnesses, one solution would be to convince manufacturers to be more vigilant about what they add to the food supply. But these people are paying attention only to the economic performance of their business and nothing else. Hence, they see it more appropriate to invade the flat strips of advertising for medicines so to force the hand of reluctant consumers to purchase their products and thus increase their turnover.

 In conclusion, although an upgrade of our legal arsenal on food advertising is underway, Morocco would do well to consider, in the meantime, interim measures to curb the wave of misleading advertisements that affects most of the national media. This may be an idea to simply ask, for example, if the commercials, these people want to pass on the Moroccan media, were rejected by another country and why. If it turns out that this was the case for an overlapping on the area of public health, then direct them to the Ministry of Health for recommendation. This will discourage surely some professionals of misleading advertisements.